SL vs IND: 3 reasons why India lost the ODI series

India lost the three-match SL vs IND ODI series 2-0.

On Wednesday, at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, hosts Sri Lanka clinched the SL vs IND ODI series by a 2-0 scoreline, with the series including a tied game. India succumbed to a huge loss by 110 runs in the third ODI, which was a must-win game for them.

While the first two ODIs were closely contested, the third one turned out to be a one-sided affair as the visitors were bowled out for 138 while chasing 249.

In the presentation ceremony after the third ODI, captain Rohit Sharma asserted the importance of realising their mistakes and looking at the areas they need to improve.

On that note, let’s analyze three factors which are the reason behind India losing the ODI series to Sri Lanka.

Here are the three reasons India lost the SL vs IND ODI series:

Indian batters’ incompetence on spin-friendly pitch

While skipper Rohit said that Indian batters’ struggles against spinners were not a concern for him, the fact that 90 percent of India’s wickets went to spinners highlights a major issue that, if not rectified, could hurt them in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

India lost 27 wickets to spinners, which is the most by any team in a bilateral ODI series of maximum three matches.

Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Jeffrey Vandersay and even part-timer Charith Asalanka had the Indian batters struggling in Colombo where the pitch offered plenty of turn.

Seeing famed names like Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer struggle to pick the turning ball and the one that goes straight with the angle is surely a matter of concern for Team India.

Shuffling of batting order

India had a long-standing problem of the number 4 position in their ODI side, which was solved by Shreyas Iyer’s impressive performances in the World Cup 2023. However, the new head coach Gautam Gambhir didn’t play Iyer even a single game at the number four slot in this series. This was baffling to the viewers.

Gambhir promoted Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube and Rishabh Pant ahead of Iyer in this series as a counter to Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner and leg-spinners. However, the hosts also boasted off-spinner Maheesh Theekshana and their captain Asalanka is an off-spinner too. So that tactic of Gambhir’s often was offsetted.

ODI cricket demands stability in playing spots, especially the top five. KL Rahul also played out of his position of number five and was dropped after only two failures.

Lack of ODI cricket

While fans and experts can dive too much into the technique of the batters, this series loss could also be put down to simply the lack of 50-over cricket for these players and rustiness on returning to ODI cricket.

This was India’s only ODI series this year. So some rustiness was bound to be in the players, especially the batters. They have been playing test matches and T20 cricket for the past seven months, so perhaps the innings construction required in 50-over cricket was amiss.

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